A portlet is an area that displays information (such as a list of links for web pages, a graph displaying business statistics, or other data) on a portal page created in a portal application. Each portal page created by a portal user can contain any number of portlets in a customizable arrangement.
Portlets must meet the Java Portlet Specification (JSR-168) development standard specification for portal applications, which specifies how portlets must function and be displayed. JSR-168 defines a set of application program interfaces for interaction between the portal page and the portlet, addressing operation preferences determined by a user.
Under JSR-168, portlets appear as mini-windows within a portal page, and can be in one of three display states: minimized, normal or maximized. Users invoke different display states through commands. In a normal state, all portlets in the portal page are visible. When a portlet is maximized, it occupies the entire area of a portal page, obscuring other portlets. When a portlet is minimized, only the portlet title bar can be seen on the portal page.
Current portal management approaches have one or more issues, such as when a portlet is placed in the maximized state, the portlet widens to consume the entire area of the page, and the other portlets that were arranged on that page are no longer shown. There is no indication that any other portlet is or can be displayed on that page.